Pete Wright:
Welcome to Build for Health, the show that redefines strength because muscle isn’t just for looks. I’m Pete Wright here with Coach Srdjan Injac, and today we are building a body that’s built to last, and we start by standing up. Srdjan, here we are. We’re talking about the sitting disease today.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
This is the plague of my entire career, the sitting disease.
Srdjan Injac:
Not just yours.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, I don’t think I’m alone.
Srdjan Injac:
Oh no.
Pete Wright:
My hunch is, even though there is an increased conversation around what sedentary lifestyles do to us physiologically, I still think there are people who haven’t internalized what’s happening in your body when you don’t move. And I think that’s our chance today. Our chance here is to help them see themselves not sedentary for a little bit. They call it the sitting disease. What does it actually — I mean you’ve heard this before, the sitting disease — what does it mean?
Srdjan Injac:
It’s most popular with media and people calling it sitting disease. It describes the cluster of negative health effects that are linked to prolonged sitting and sedentary behavior. It has so many negative effects. There’s a lot of studies that have been shown that people who exercise but still have that sedentary lifestyle, they have increased risk of issues like obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, poor posture. So it doesn’t matter if you just work out for one hour if you’re sitting for eight to ten hours a day. It’s still going to impact you negatively. The body cares more about what you do in twenty-three hours than just that one hour.
Pete Wright:
I’m trying to keep a secret from my body of what’s happening in all those other hours. Let’s break it down region by region, because I think the first thing people think about mostly is posture. You already dropped posture, and I know that’s the most obvious tour of damage.
Srdjan Injac:
We can start with the posture. The posture becomes — pretty much, it’s your identity. And here’s something that most people don’t think about. Your posture isn’t just a muscle. It’s neurological. So your nervous system learns what’s normal based on repetition. If you’re sitting and slouching all day, that becomes your default. And when you try to stand up straight, it actually feels uncomfortable. It feels like you’re forcing it. I get a lot of people and they say things like, oh, I can’t fix my posture. But it’s not that they can’t, it’s that their body has been trained into that different pattern.
Pete Wright:
I’m so uncomfortable right now. I don’t know if you can see me on camera. I’m constantly adjusting and sitting up. I feel like you’re calling me out right now.
Srdjan Injac:
Try and just sit up straight. So many people come with that problem, and that’s why I look at their posture first. Until we fix that, we can’t really go on and do all the other stuff. You have to have the right posture in order to have good form doing all the other exercises. People come to me all the time and they can’t fix their posture, so I’m trying to correct their posture first because if we don’t do that, we can’t do anything else. We have to have the right posture in order to have good form doing all these other exercises.
They’re very uncomfortable. I feel like I’m forcing them into a position that feels unnatural for them, which it is at this point, because they’re so used to it. And I have to get their body used to actually being straight and have good posture. It takes a long time because they can’t pull their shoulders back. They can’t realize their traps are huge and they’re just slouched down. There are so many different issues and problems that they have, and many of them don’t really realize that they have the problem.
Pete Wright:
There are all sorts of slang terms. One of them that is common, I think, for people who sit and work at a computer all day is tech neck, where their posture, they sort of curve forward, and their head doesn’t look entirely on top of their shoulders. It’s like it’s gonna fall off.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, so that’s thoracic mobility. When you sit, especially at the desk, you’ll naturally fall into that rounded position. Shoulders come forward, head goes forward, the upper back rounds. Over time your thoracic spine, which is supposed to move and rotate, becomes stiff. And that creates a chain of reactions. You lose the mobility in your upper back, which affects your shoulders. And then your breathing becomes more shallow because you’re not using your diaphragm properly. When you do exercises and movements like overhead press and squatting — even just trying to stand up straight — it just becomes harder. I think a lot of people just need to also stretch more.
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Srdjan Injac:
The reality is their body just adapted to that position for hours every day. Whatever they’re doing, they’re sitting. That’s the reality.
Pete Wright:
I feel like — you know, we’ve talked about how you like to say you’ve got to give your body an excuse to change. The reciprocal of that is your body forgets to change. It forgets how, and it can get stuck in these positions if you’re not careful. And I say that as that person. It’s a long road to figure out how to move again. Will I ever really learn? I don’t know, but it’s better when things start to loosen up. Life is better.
Srdjan Injac:
Oh yeah. I find myself — I’ll get stiff if I sit more than an hour, two hours.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
And then trying to get up, I’m like, oh my god, my neck, my back, my legs, my knees — your joints, everything will just stiffen up.
Pete Wright:
Well, let’s do one more obvious external thing — or I guess internal/external. We’ve talked about the thoracic vertebrae, we’ve talked about the neck and tech neck. If we go downstairs a little bit, we’re talking about hips and hip flexors. When people hear the hip flexor question — you have tight hip flexors — what does that mean?
Srdjan Injac:
Tight hip flexors, because you’re sitting for that long period of time.
Pete Wright:
And your hip flexors, they’re the front of your leg?
Srdjan Injac:
Yes, they’re at the front of your leg.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Srdjan Injac:
That becomes more tight. And then your hamstrings become more tight too, but your glutes are now becoming weaker. So it affects the whole posture, because the power also comes from the glutes, which is what keeps you straight as well. People have problems with that. It does affect your lower body as well. That’s why you feel it in your hip flexors. Everyone’s so tight in those hip flexors. Every time when it comes up, they’re like, oh, it hurts right here. It’s because they’re so tight. You’ve been sitting for too long. And then your glutes are weaker, and that all goes into your lower back. Now your lower back hurts. So it’s all connected.
Pete Wright:
The lower back is the canary in the coal mine.
Srdjan Injac:
Like your lower back, I tell them, your lower back is fine. It’s just weak. It’s just because everything else around it is weaker. The problem is coming from other areas. It’s not literally your back that’s bad.
Pete Wright:
That’s the big learning. Your back hurts not because of your back. Your back hurts because of all these other connected systems.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, then we try to figure out where the problems are coming from. All the weak areas, and your core as well. It’s all connected.
Pete Wright:
How do you turn — so it seems like if I sit too long, my glutes, my butt, just gives up. It just decides I’m not going to contribute to the system anymore. How do you turn it back on?
Srdjan Injac:
Well, you’ve got to get up. You’ve got to move. Get up. That’s why they say, get off your butt.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, okay, all right.
Srdjan Injac:
That’s literally what it means. You’ve got to get off your butt and you’ve got to move. At the same time, your glutes — your butt is supposed to be one of the strongest and most important muscles in your body. But basically it just shuts off. That’s why people have the problem. Now you’ve got tight hip flexors pulling your pelvis forward and weak glutes that aren’t doing their job. And that leads to things like anterior pelvic tilt, lower back compensation. It can also decrease performance when you try to lift, run, move at the gym. If you’re training legs and doing squats and deadlifts, if your glutes aren’t firing properly, you’re not getting the full benefits.
Pete Wright:
When you see somebody who comes in who’s just been sitting too much, you can tell, right?
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
What is the difference between looking at somebody who comes in after a year of sitting too much versus ten years of sitting too much?
Srdjan Injac:
It’s a lot harder to fix the posture. The body adapted to that posture and it’s a lot harder to correct it. People who have been doing it for a year, they struggle a little bit, but ten years — that’s a long time. If they haven’t been doing anything, it’s a struggle. It’s a big struggle. It takes way longer. And of course chances for injuries are now higher.
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Srdjan Injac:
You have to be more careful, watch every movement and their form. They have to do more stretching, everything more, than somebody who’s only been doing that job for a year and just sitting and slouching. It’s a lot easier. They’ll correct it a lot faster.
Pete Wright:
We’ve talked about the neck and the spine, we’ve talked about hips and hip flexors. You’ve already dropped the big M, the metabolism. This is one I don’t think people think about at all.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, this is where the science starts to get a little uncomfortable, because it’s not just about posture anymore. It’s about what’s happening inside.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
When you sit for those long periods of time, your ability to handle glucose — basically how your body processes carbs — starts to decline. After you eat, instead of efficiently using that glucose for energy, your blood sugar stays elevated longer and your insulin sensitivity drops. And here’s the part most people don’t realize: that can happen even if you’re working out consistently.
The research has also shown that within about sixty to ninety minutes of sitting, the enzyme LPL — which is lipoprotein lipase — starts to drop significantly. We’ll just call it LPL. That enzyme plays a big role in pulling fats out of your bloodstream.
Pete Wright:
Oh my god.
Srdjan Injac:
It’s helping your body use them properly. So your body’s processing of carbs starts to decline. Everything goes down. Instead of efficiently using that glucose for energy, your blood sugar stays elevated. The enzyme sits on the walls of your blood vessels, especially around your muscles and fat tissue, and its job is to break down those fats from your bloodstream. Your body can either use them for energy or store them as fat. The LPL is like a gatekeeper that takes the fat out of circulation and directs where it needs to go. This is why it matters when you’re sitting too long, when you’re physically inactive, especially not using your muscles — that LPL drops.
Pete Wright:
This leads to the energy crashes, working in the afternoon and feeling like you just can’t focus, you can’t stay attentive to what you’re doing. You feel weak and heavy. And then you gain weight even when you are changing your diet accordingly. That’s a confusing one.
Srdjan Injac:
Yep. That’s how people start gaining weight, even one or two, three pounds here and there. People don’t realize they’re not really moving, and they’re like, well, I’m going to the gym and working out. That still doesn’t matter. That’s just one hour compared to ten hours. What do you do for the other twenty-three hours?
Pete Wright:
Right. Your metabolic system is not doing the cleanup that it needs to be doing if you were moving.
Srdjan Injac:
No. The metabolism slows down. People need to move more often. Make sure you get those eight to ten thousand steps a day. When you eat, make sure you go for a walk for about five to ten minutes. Get up after an hour of just sitting down, stretch, move around. I’ve seen people sit on exercise balls and things like that, so during the time they’re sitting, they’re kind of moving around. They don’t want to feel stiff like they would feel sitting on a chair. You have to move around, because the body cares more about what you do, like I said, in those twenty-three hours than the one time you go and work out for one hour at the gym.
People can’t realize — well, what am I doing wrong? I’m eating healthy, I’m doing this, I’m going to the gym. Well, for those twenty-three hours, they kind of forget that part.
Pete Wright:
That’s tricky, because I can go to the gym three times a week and when I’m there, I can be very, very focused and move hard. But I can still be at risk if the other twenty-three hours I’m sitting. Is what I hear you saying.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes. That’s very true.
Pete Wright:
What I needed you to say was, don’t worry, Pete, one hour of your workout will offset eight hours. Like there’s a currency exchange. For one hour of workout, what do I buy? How many Twinkies do I get for one hour of workout? It sounds like you’re not going to give me any purchase there.
Srdjan Injac:
No, not much. I’m still going to have you move around, do some cardio, get your steps in, get out for a walk.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Okay.
Srdjan Injac:
Get up and stretch, because you’re still going to be stiff. We’ve got to correct that posture, speed up that metabolism. You come in for an hour and we break down the muscle, getting them stronger and bigger and all that stuff, but that’s about it. Like I said, people come to the gym and I’m like, you don’t grow here, you don’t get stronger. You break down. You’re damaging pretty much your body, your muscles. Then depending on what you do outside the gym, that will determine if you’re going to grow, if you’re going to get stronger, if your metabolism’s going to speed up.
Pete Wright:
All right. We’ve given a lot of really depressing stuff so far. This is — look, everybody, this is how your body is breaking down as you’re listening to this podcast.
Srdjan Injac:
Very depressing.
Pete Wright:
Now let’s talk about two stages of how we can kind of undo this sort of damage. The first is your recommendations — you’ve already dropped some hints for what people need to be doing at home on their own or at work. How do they change their behavior in a way that staves off some of this negative behavior? And the second is, what would you do at the gym? How can you help people who have been sitting down for a long time see themselves coming into the gym and feeling like they have a plan? Let’s start with what you’re doing at the desk.
Srdjan Injac:
At the desk, I suggest people — there are a lot of desks where you can stand instead of sit, where you can actually lift them up. That’s way better. So either use that. It’s a lot easier. Your posture is going to be better. You’re not going to be slouching over, rounding the shoulders.
Sit on an exercise ball. You’re going to be working your core, not even realizing you’re moving that ball around. Nobody sits exactly still on the ball. You’re on the ball, you kind of like to bounce around and play around while you’re on it.
Do some exercises on your breaks, on your lunch. When you go for lunch, make sure that after you eat you walk around, even for five or ten minutes. It’s better than going straight to your desk. I did this presentation at one of the law firms last year. They were doing a fitness challenge. I gave them some exercises that they can do at their desks. With just a ball and a small band, you can do a lot of stuff. People had those fifteen-minute breaks, and I showed them some things they can do to help them move around. They said it felt better. They had more energy. They hadn’t felt really stiff like before. They were more likely to get up and do those things. Find something that will get you moving.
Pete Wright:
I’ll tell you, you know me, I love my Apple Watch. I do. I love it. Irrationally, I love it. From the moment I got it, it starts yelling at me if I haven’t stood up in the last hour. At minute fifty of every hour, if I haven’t gotten up, it starts yelling at me. Hey, go stand up. Go stand up for one minute.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I started doing that from the beginning, and I think my life got better. What I hear a lot from people is, I hate these stupid stand notifications.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I hate them. How do you turn them off? And I understand that, but I feel like that’s the point. They’re supposed to get you up. If you stand up every hour, you won’t hear the notifications. Just stand up every hour. That’s the behavior change you want. And this is for a lot more than just keeping the watch without throwing it out the window. It’s for your life. Stand up when it tells you to stand up.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes. It’s a lot more important than people think. There are so many of these issues that can come up, and over time they don’t realize it adds up over the years, the months. It will affect your health, definitely. Even my watch sometimes tells me what time to get up. I’m like, really? I feel like I just sat down. I’m like, I was just up. I’m like, come on, let me sit down for a little bit. But I’m like, you know what, I’m going to get up. It says get up.
Pete Wright:
And you’re up all the time.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I want to shout out organizations that do walking meetings. Walking meetings are huge. If you’re on a teleconference, it’s kind of easy if you don’t have to be at your computer. Put on your earbuds and take a walk. Take the meeting outside. Actually, I think you will find your participation in the meeting is better. Your brain is energized. You’re moving around. You’ll be more attentive. That’s been my experience at least.
Walking meetings. I actually have a colleague who is a manager and runs constant meetings, and actually does them in person while walking. There’s a little frontage park near their building. They leave the building and they have their conversations while walking through this little park. It’s good for everybody to get out and do that. Super annoying for some people. They just can’t quite get it. But I just feel like this is central to a long and healthy future — to use every excuse you can to move around.
Srdjan Injac:
Oh yeah. Definitely do that.
Pete Wright:
Now walk me through what — help me picture what I’m doing at the gym, so that I can feel at home when I walk through the door, knowing that this is my central problem. I’ve got problems in my neck and my spine, and my glutes have turned off, and my hip flexors are too tight. What are you going to make me do?
Srdjan Injac:
Well, I want to activate all those muscles. It’s going to be very uncomfortable. It’s going to hurt.
Pete Wright:
But in a good way.
Srdjan Injac:
I’m doing everything. But yeah, in a good way.
Pete Wright:
Right.
Srdjan Injac:
It’s going to be painful, but in a good way. You’re going to love it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
It’s going to hurt, but you’re going to love it.
Pete Wright:
You’re gonna love it.
Srdjan Injac:
That’s why with the few free sessions that I give people, I do certain things just to check out their posture, see what’s wrong. It’s always the hip — the hip flexors are way too tight, and the lower back issues, and the back problems. They can’t put their shoulders back. They can’t stand up straight. So I have to do a lot. It depends on how bad it really is.
Like you said, if somebody has been like this for ten years versus someone who’s only been in that sitting position for a year or two, it’s a lot easier to progress and move to the next level and do certain exercises. But people who have been like that for a long time, I have to go through some almost like physical therapy stuff to get their shoulders and back muscles to start activating, for their glutes to activate. They don’t even know how to activate the glutes. They can’t. They don’t know how to use them. They’ll try to use everything else, and usually it’s the lower back. They don’t know how to use their back. The shoulders kick in every time and they feel it all in the shoulder, and it’s not supposed to feel in the shoulder at all. It’s supposed to be your back.
I have to take certain steps to get them to that point. And I have to remind them: from now on, when you’re at the desk and you’re in the office or home, just stand up. Get up, move around. That’s going to help. Because just one hour here, I can’t do anything in that one hour when for the other ten hours you’re going in a different direction.
Pete Wright:
For everybody who’s listening to the show right now — you’re in your car, you’re sitting at your desk, maybe you’re on a walk — just ask yourself, when Srdjan said they don’t know how to activate their glutes, if you squeeze your butt together real tight. Just because I know I did.
Srdjan Injac:
Squeeze your glutes, see if you can feel anything.
Pete Wright:
I bet they’re already trying. I’m like, oh, can I activate my glutes? Oh, thank God, I can. I’m okay. I’m okay. We can keep talking.
Srdjan Injac:
I tell them try and activate your back, and they’re like, oh, that hurts. I’m like, oh yeah, that hurts because it’s a weak muscle. You haven’t been using it. It’s stretched out. That’s why, for example, I love doing split squats. They’re great. They stretch your hips, your hip flexors, that one leg that’s up. People hate them because of that.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
I ask them, where do you feel it? They’re pointing at the hip flexor. They’re like, this hurts so bad. They’re not even feeling where they’re supposed to — quads, hamstrings, glutes, nothing. They’re pointing at the hip flexor because that hurts the most. Because you’re finally stretching that muscle that has been overworked, just been flexed the whole ten hours a day. It’s just crazy. After a few months, they get better at it. It gets stronger.
There are some exercises that I do with every single client because they’re very beneficial. It puts them in an uncomfortable position. So pick the exercise stuff that’s uncomfortable for you. Don’t be in that comfort zone and do things that feel good, because your posture is probably bad and it feels good because you’re used to that.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So do the things that actually hurt a little bit.
Pete Wright:
Hurt in this context is not broken. Hurt is not broken. Hurt is actually on the mend. It’s okay.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes. It’s okay. It means it’s good. It’s working.
Pete Wright:
I really like that reframe. Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore. It doesn’t have to be a workout. It can be — this is a major feature of your day that you get to do. That’s the mindset shift. Getting to stand up, getting to make those changes in your life, is a real benefit, and it pays dividends in every area.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, and this is just the posture. I can kind of help you and fix those things. But when you come to metabolism, to processing all those carbs and sugars going to your bloodstream — think about that. That’s worse than your posture. With posture, we can do a lot of stretching. We can have you get off the desk, get up and stretch. But your metabolism — that’s where the problem comes in, especially for people who are trying to lose weight. You want those carbs and sugar that are going into your bloodstream to be used as a fuel — your muscles to use it as fuel for energy — and not have it stored as fat. But because of that enzyme being so low, the body doesn’t use it. It doesn’t need to. You’re not moving. The muscles are not moving. It just gets stored as fat.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Again, it doesn’t matter if you’re working out one hour a day. It’s not going to magically speed up your metabolism, and everything you eat now your body’s going to use as fuel. It’s not going to happen. To me, that’s scarier than the posture. I can sit, even when I’m sitting, try to pull my shoulders back, watching a movie, whatever, and try to stand up straight. But I’m not moving those muscles. The enzyme is still low. All the stuff internally that’s going on — that’s the scary part.
Pete Wright:
The stuff you can’t see.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes, that you can’t see. Then you’re wondering, like, I’m doing everything right and I’m still gaining weight, and I don’t understand why. That’s why. And that’s why people say it’s important to get those steps in. Eight thousand, ten thousand steps, get them in.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. It’s not about the steps, it’s about the movement.
Srdjan Injac:
It’s not that hard. You’re not lifting heavy weights. You’re just moving. Just move.
Pete Wright:
You don’t even have to be proud of them. You don’t have to be proud of your steps. Just do the steps. Who cares? You’re not showing off to anybody.
Srdjan Injac:
Exactly. Do it for yourself.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Just try to hit your personal goal.
Pete Wright:
All right. Keep moving, everybody. Thank you so much, Srdjan. The whole objective of this conversation is just to plant a seed to remind you that tomorrow you could be feeling different. If you feel like you’re too sedentary, you probably are. And you could be feeling different with just a few small changes. Just start visualizing yourself as someone who does that. Hugely important to live a long and healthy life.
Thank you for your time and attention. We appreciate you being here. If you’ve got questions about training, recovery, or how to make strength work in your life, we want to hear them. Head to the show notes and you’ll see a link that says, send in a question for the coach. And don’t forget to subscribe and share. This is how we grow stronger together.
Thanks for listening to Build for Health. We’ll see you next week in the gym.
